Another pet food recall was announced yesterday. This recall affects two types of Nutro Brand cat food. No dog foods are affected. Nutro issued a press release yesterday. Here is a quote.
This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.
Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO dry cat food.
Based upon the limited information I have seen I am optimistic that this recall will not lead to serious illness in many cats. Zinc can be toxic in very high doses. Although I have not seen quantitative information on the amount of zinc contained in the recalled foods, it is unlikely that their zinc levels are high enough to cause problems.
Low potassium also can lead to a host of problems. However, they usually develop slowly.
In either case, I’m optimistic that switching affected cats to a nutritionally balanced diet will prevent major issues from occurring.
However, contact your veterinarian immediately if your cat has been eating a recalled food and he or she experiences lethargy, weakness, lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, or any other unusual symptoms.
For more information, click here to read the entire press release.
A note about comments: emotions tend to run strong when pet food is discussed. Please keep your comments civil. Thank you in advance for not forcing me to delete your comments.
